Tag Archives: Animal Kingdom

I’ve been to Animal Kingdom a couple times, though I do skip it on many trips. I somehow always missed Dinoland though. Now that I’ve been there, I’ll be leaving it off my list in the future.

I entered Dinoland from Asia, near Dinorama, an area that can be best described as a carnival on a bad trip. It’s loud and flashy. It seemed cool at first, but by the time I walked out of there I was already getting a headache. When I looked in from the opposite side I saw that a lot of care was taken in the themeing, but they really went overboard by making it an unbearable place to be by the parents of the children who might enjoy it.

Then of course there was the ride Dinosaur, even after looking at the map to find where the ride was I had to look again because the area was so poorly marked. And the ride was even worse. I’m pretty adventursome about rides, I’m only limited now by my getting old and my body not keeping up like it used to. I road the Indiana Jones ride last year in Disneyland which has the same ride vehicle, I loved it. This ride though was terrible. It was dark, jerky and then dinosaurs jumped out at you, it wasn’t scary, it was annoying. The best is the picture of me on the ride, I actually look irritated, as did the other people in their pictures.

Sum of All Thrills design your own ride, a fighter jet, bobsled or roller coaster. You get to pick the types of twists and turns in your ride, making it as intense or tame as you choose. I did the bobsled the first time and it was a bit tame, the second time I did the roller coaster and that was more fun. This is a fun ride and being hidden in Innoventions it doesn’t get as crowded as it could potentially be.

Impressions de France the prettiest boring film I ever did see! Seriously, France looked beautiful in this film, but it had no personality. This film could be great if they added a bit of narration to make it more interesting. Or, I could see a Soarin type of attraction here instead using similar video.

Reflections of China a circle-vision film with the highlights of China. It has a nice vibe, historical and proud and most importantly, it made me want to visit China. I think that makes the case that it was good.

Dinosaur This may be the worst ride in all of Disney World. It’s dark, jerky and annoying. The ride vehicle for this is the same as the one for the Indiana Jones ride in Disneyland, and that is a good ride. But this ride, it was very dark, the ride jerked around, I guess to scare you, though I’m not sure because it was so dark you couldn’t see a reason for it to jerk around. Then dinosaurs popped up and made noises. Ok, that made sense. The whole ride was actually irritating and the faces of the riders in the photos when you get off the ride tells the story, no one looks scared, but annoyed.

Voices of Liberty A pre-show of sorts for the American Adventure. It’s a group of 9 men and woman singing patriotic songs. The performance lasts 10-15 minutes and is a nice chance to relax for a few minutes. If you can’t get a seat on a bench, sit on the floor around the circle in the middle (the signers will face the entrance to the theatre on the right).

Vision House at Innoventions in Epcot. A 20 minute walk through of an energy efficient house. This was interesting if you’re into energy efficiency and home design. I had two issues with it though. First, it was extremely cold in there, the thermostat was set for 65 degrees, not very efficient. Second, they rambled off the names of the stuff in the house, but then didn’t even offer a place to get information about them if you were interested. But it did help get me to think of ways to conserve.

Main Street Electrical Parade An old school parade that was brought back to replace Spectromagic. I found the music a bit repetitive, and the look and feel a bit old. But, it was a fun, whimsical parade. I went to the second showing of the parade and it was much less crowded then the earlier one.

Stitches Great Escape I remember this ride from when I was a child, when it was Alien Encounter, and it’s not a fond memory. Seriously, it’s a scary ride and not in a good way. It’s a ride themed after a childrens character that does bad things. I think silly bad things are fun, like the farting (Not my thing as an adult, but for little boys…), but escaping and attacking us. Yea, scary and not in a fun way. I’ve added this to my list of rides to never ride again.

Astro Orbiter This is one of those simple spinney rides, what could go wrong? Well, first, the elevator smelled, then the ride vehicle was uncomfortable. Ugh, not cool. And I thought we would at least get cool views of the park, but not really. Most of the view was of a roof. Another ride to skip in the future.

Liberty Square Riverboat If the boat had more seating this would be a nice ride around Tom Sawyer Island, but it doesn’t. I did sit on my ride and I was a bit bored, which would be fine if it was a 17 minute break from a long hot day in the parks. But if you’re not guaranteed a seat on one of those days, I would rather just sit through Hall of Presidents.